Editorial: In Renisha McBride case, try to remain calm until we have the facts

Nov. 13, 2013

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Written by

The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board

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A woman weeps after the funeral service for 19-year-old Renisha McBride on Friday in Detroit. McBride was shot and killed by a Dearborn Heights home owner in the early morning hours Nov. 2 after she approached his house. / Brian Kaufman/Detroit Free Press

Family picture of Renisha McBride. / Family photo

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Stay calm. Wait for the facts.

That’s exactly what everyone in southeast Michigan needs to do while authorities figure out what on earth led a 54-year-old Dearborn Heights man to shoot 19-year-old Renisha McBride in the face while she was standing on his porch two weeks ago.

Be clear: McBride’s death is both unjust and tragic. An unarmed woman, standing on a porch, shot in the face with a shotgun. There’s nothing right about those circumstances, and it’s difficult to reserve judgement when a young woman is dead.

But it matters what happened in the hours between the car wreck McBride fled from in Detroit and when she appeared on the Dearborn Heights porch at 3:40 a.m.

It also matters what transpired between McBride and the 54-year-old before the shots were fired, and it matters what the Dearborn Heights man believed was happening.

And yes, it matters that McBride was black, and her killer was white, in a region where race defines so much of our history, and still shapes many perceptions today.

The range of possibilities is dizzying, and the nature of the injustice here is still very much unclear.

McBride’s death could be the latest example of a nefarious cultural trend that attaches suspicion too quickly to African Americans — especially young African-American men — and often with deadly consequences.

But McBride’s death could also be a horrible instance of miscommunication and over-reaction that, nonetheless, has no important racial context at all.

The facts, which Dearborn Heights police have been gathering and forwarding to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, are the key to determining where this incident falls along that range, and what the appropriate response might be.

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Worthy’s no slouch, and most certainly won’t blanch if the evidence warrants a prosecution. If there’s not enough to prosecute, she won’t hesitate to stand down.

Beyond the immediate incident, this is also a reminder of Michigan’s controversial “stand your ground” law, which permits the use of deadly force outside the context of a response to a deadly threat.

Because of the law, it’s entirely possible that the shooter in this case will have committed no crime by shooting an unarmed person in the face, if he simply had “reasonable” belief that his deadly force was necessary to prevent himself from being hurt.

It’s a flimsy standard that allows ambiguity to blossom into deadly certainties. The ability to fire at will, to take a human life and face few or no consequences, places a terrible responsibility onto people who aren’t, who can’t be, prepared to make the kind of split-second, high-pressure evaluations and decisions that, say, police officers can. And set in the racially charged minefields of crime and punishment in this country, “stand your ground” is just another incendiary device.

In the absence of “stand your ground,” would the man who killed McBride have ventured onto his porch, or would he have stayed inside and dialed 911? Until all the facts of the encounter are released, it’s impossible to say. But it’s worth considering.

Without question, Michigan lawmakers should be considering a heavy rewrite, or outright repeal.

But for now, the dialogue about McBride’s death — unfolding all over the Internet and airwaves, at McBride’s funeral and at least one rally — needs to respect the process, and hold off on hard-edged conclusions until much more is known about what happened, and why.

So far, that process is working the way it’s supposed to work. And premature conclusions of any kind are a hindrance, rather than a facilitator, of justice.